Oil giant BP has invested in biofuel startup CoolPlanet BioFuels, according to an announcement on Thursday. CoolPlanet BioFuels is the biofuel startup you have never heard of but that has unusually famous investors like GE, Google, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips. Read more »
Tablets are set to be a hit with small- and medium-sized businesses in 2012, according to a new NPD survey, and Apple is set to take full advantage. The iPad has the advantage of being synonymous with “tablet” in enterprise, which is great news for Apple. Read more »
Updated. On Wednesday morning, the New York Times sent a number of emails urging customers to call a toll-free number to renew their subscriptions. They seem to have been sent by Epsilon Data Management, an email marketing firm which had a major data breach in March. Read more »
Hot on the heels of a report about Apple’s iTV plans on Tuesday, there are fresh stories about its potential components and supplier partners out on Wednesday morning. DigiTimes cites new supply-chain sources saying that Apple is entertaining chipmaker bids for the iTV’s processor contracts. Read more »
2011 has been all about personalized mobile apps, and Evernote has benefited handsomely: In the past 12 months, the personal note-taking software company grew its user base from 6 million to 20 million. GigaOM talked to CEO Phil Libin about the growth and Evernote’s 2012 outlook. Read more »
As 2011 comes to a close, I’m thinking ahead to what mobile technology trends I expect to see in 2012. While I formulate those thoughts for a post later this week, now is a good time to see how I did with my 2011 predictions. Read more »
Samsung is reportedly in discussions to offer Android 4.0 software upgrades to its Galaxy S smartphones and Galaxy Tab slates. Perhaps Samsung’s TouchWiz software is slimmed down or eliminated, which may not be a problem. Getting carriers to support such an upgrade, however, may be. Read more »
Apple’s iOS devices were popular gifts during the holiday weekend, as you might expect. According to a new study, there were 12.5 times more devices accessing games and apps using one major analytics platform than during previous weekends, in fact. Android fared almost as well, too. Read more »
We already knew that mobile advertisements perform better on larger screened devices and now there’s evidence of when the best time of the year is for a these ad spots in apps. If you guessed the year-end holiday season, you’d be right according to this infographic. Read more »
Does the world really need another search engine? Trefis says yes at least for do-it-yourself and even professional investors. For them, Trefis is launching a new search option that will return only pertinent, rich data about the companies they follow. Read more »
The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and Tab slate won’t see an upgrade to Android 4.0, leaving owners to decide between buying a newer device, sticking with Android 2.3 or installing a custom build of Google’s latest mobile operating system. Here’s a suggestion to make everyone happy. Read more »
f people are buying through online retail sites on mobile, they’re most likely doing so on Apple devices, according to a new report. iPads and iPhones accounted for over 92 percent of online retail not originating from a desktop device in December, according to the study. Read more »
“Cloud first” markets — those where companies’ first serious engagements with information technology are in the form of cloud computing — are beginning to emerge. For the BRIC economies in particular, this might mean a chance to adopt low-cost solutions that will give companies a clear ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Samsung introduced its first dual-SIM smartphones on Thursday, the Galaxy Y Duos and Galaxy Y Pro Duos. The Android 2.3 smartphones are aimed at emerging markets, but if they’re successful, Samsung could migrate the solution up the Galaxy line for the bring your own device crowd. Read more »
Nuclear startup TerraPower, which is backed by Bill Gates, now has a massive Indian conglomerate on its side: Reliance Industries. According to Business Week, Reliance Industries, which owns oil, telecom and retail businesses, has invested a minority stake in TerraPower through one of its energy units. Read more »
Apple’s iPhone 4S has propelled Cupertino’s smartphone share back to growth in many markets, including Britain, according to new data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released Thursday. But Apple’s latest smartphone isn’t leading to runaway success everywhere, owing in part to economic concerns. Read more »
Millennial Media is providing another solid bit of data on Kindle Fire sales, saying that the Fire’s ad impressions have been growing by 19 percent daily since its mid-November launch. The Kindle Fire is now on a faster initial pace than the iPad. Read more »
The steep prices of the NFL’s new broadcast rights deals are likely to put pressure on rapidly growing fault lines within the pay-TV industry that could, ironically, accelerate the breakup of the broad bundle of channels at the core of the current business model — something ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Though most U.S. operators use Carrier IQ’s handset monitoring software in some form, they’re not all using it to the same degrees. Sprint turns out to be Carrier IQ’s biggest fan, installing its software on half of all devices while AT&T uses it much more sparingly. Read more »
Research in Motion announced its fiscal third quarter results on Thursday (PDF), showing quarterly growth in revenues and handset sales, but continued dismal tablet numbers. Even worse: the company is predicting lower handset sales next quarter, which make up nearly 80 percent of all revenues. Read more »
